Wrapping Paper and Snowball Fights
by Taaroko
Summary: While they wrap presents, Buffy shows Willow one of her gifts for Angel, which will make this the happiest Christmas-slash-Hanukkah ever. Extremely fluffy future family fic. Buffy/Angel, Willow/Oz, slight Connor/Dawn and Xander/Renée. Enjoy and review!
1. Chapter 1

Once again, my muse proved rather festive. Here we are in my fantasy world version of the Buffyverse, in December of 2011. While this exists in the future that follows my "Season 8", you don't need to have read that freakishly long fic to understand this conveniently short one. Though it might give you something to do if you're bored over the holidays. Shrug.

Disclaimer: Notice how I said that this comes from "my fantasy world version of the Buffyverse". That means I don't own the real thing, nor would I presume to take credit for any of it. I just like borrowing the characters and *cough* making their lives a little happier from time to time.

Also, this is probably set in upstate New York, since that area strikes me as a lovely place for the Scoobies to settle down and all that good stuff. Plus it snows there.

* * *

Monday, December 19, 2011

Buffy ripped off another piece of Scotch tape and pressed it carefully onto the folded candy cane-patterned paper, then passed the dispenser to Willow, who, through diligent concentration, had managed to wrap yet another gift properly. With pride, she secured it with the final piece of tape and set the menorah-patterned gift in her "done" pile, where it sat surrounded by rest of the presents, the wrapping of which alternated between menorah, Star of David, and dreidel-covered paper. Seconds later, Buffy added this latest package to her own pile. Gingerbread men, reindeer, and more candy canes festively hid the presents they would be opening next week. Even though they always celebrated together regardless, it was nice to have Christmas and Hanukkah fall so close together this year.

They paused as they reached for the next things to wrap, looking out the large window at the sunlit, snow-covered back lawn, and felt their hearts melt.

"No wonder they volunteered to distract the kids while we did the presents," said Buffy. She smiled as she watched Angel dramatically pretend to fall, mortally wounded, from the snowball he had taken to the chest, courtesy of a four-year-old with surprisingly good aim. Her breath puffing out in bursts of white fog and her dark brown pigtails bouncing as she ran, Kathy hurried over to him, her rosy little face full of concern. Just as she reached out a small, mitten-covered hand to touch the white powder splattered across her father's chest, he came back to life with a rumbling burst of laughter and swept her into his arms. Her responding giggles were loud enough that Buffy could hear them through the glass of the window.

Willow's gaze, meanwhile, was drawn to the spot a few yards away from them, where Oz and Daniel were almost finished building a snowman. She laughed when she realized that her husband and son had somehow managed to construct a crude guitar out of snow, which the snowman now appeared to be strumming. Not far from them, Daniel's twin was working on the latest of what seemed to be a whole choir of little snow angels. The copper-colored braids trailing down from under Tara's thick knit cap were stiff from all of the snow already stuck to them, but judging by the way her mother's famed "resolve face" was currently mirrored on her much smaller features, she wouldn't be stopping any time soon.

Buffy and Willow exchanged broad smiles before going back to gift-wrapping. The former finished wrapping three different-sized boxes that contained new ice skates for herself, her husband, and their daughter—hockey skates for the latter two, as Angel wouldn't go near figure skates if he was paid to and Kathy's tomboy phase had apparently gotten an early start—and realized that there was only one thing left to wrap. She couldn't believe she had almost forgotten, even though she had only found out for sure a few hours ago.

After Willow finished wrapping a toy guitar for Daniel and a chemistry set for Tara, she noticed that Buffy had already stopped. She looked inquiringly at her, intending to ask whether they should make hot chocolate for themselves and the five playing in the snow, or get on their coats and gloves and join the snowball fight that had just begun. The expression on Buffy's face drove the question from Willow's mind, however. She was staring at something her pile of presents obscured from view, and she looked torn between excitement, awe, disbelief, and anxiety.

"What is it?" Willow asked. Buffy jumped slightly and looked up at her. She didn't reply for a minute, temporarily paralyzed by an irrational fear that saying it out loud would make it go away. She soon found a loophole in this logic, however, and simply held up the thing she had been about to wrap, excitement now dominating her expression.

For approximately a tenth of a second, Willow stared at the little plus sign on the used plastic device, before she launched herself at her best friend with a squeal of delight. It would have been quite wonderful enough news in a normal situation, but those rarely applied in this circle of friends. The fact that both Buffy and Angel had actually survived this long was a miracle on its own, considering everything they had faced, and Angel having his humanity restored to him almost eight years before had been even more miraculous.

Not long after Willow and Oz had been blessed with their beautiful twins, Kathy came along, and Willow couldn't have imagined two people happier to welcome a child than Buffy and Angel had been then. But the circumstances of Kathy's birth had by no means been smooth sailing. Premature labor and bonus complications during delivery had almost ended the fragile new life before she had even officially arrived in the world. Clearly displaying a rare charitable mood, Fate had been kind to them that day four summers ago, for now Kathy was as strong and healthy as the redheads at whom she was currently pelting snowballs.

A couple of days after her birth, when both mother and daughter were finally out of the woods, and the new parents were falling in love with the tiny, chocolate-eyed bundle that they were at last allowed to hold in their arms, a doctor had informed them sympathetically that the whole ordeal had most likely rendered Buffy sterile. That news hadn't seemed so terrible then; Buffy and Kathy were alive and well, and that was more than enough to end the day in joyful triumph.

It soon almost seemed like Kathy had siblings anyway, as well as she got along with the Osbourne twins, and then with Xander and Renée's little Jesse, who was born a few months later. As the four of them grew to toddlerhood, they were practically inseparable, and presented a force of sheer cuteness against which even "Grandpa" Giles had no defense. Connor and Dawn's son, Steven, who would be two in the spring, had been following his cousin and her friends around since he could crawl.

In spite of all of this, Buffy had still quietly lamented that she and Angel would be able to have no more children of their own. There had been one heartbreaking false alarm shortly before Kathy's third birthday, and that had hurt more than when the doctor had first told her it couldn't happen. That was why she had ignored the signs this time, not wanting to get her hopes up—or Angel's—if this turned out to be nothing. She hadn't been able to help it, though. After a week of failing to convince herself that missing one period was perfectly normal, she had caved, and bought a whole pack of pregnancy tests. They had all come out positive, and the doctor had confirmed the results that morning.

Willow spent a whole minute in transports of unintelligible delight, which didn't seem to involve ever pausing to breathe, before she regained enough dignity to break off the hug and step back to look at Buffy's shining face. "This is going to be the best Christmas-slash-Hanukkah _ever_," she declared.

"I know," Buffy agreed, "but don't tell anyone, okay? I want it to be a surprise." The only thing keeping her from telling Angel herself, _now_, was the thought of his face when he unwrapped the test, official diagnosis, and schedule of checkup dates. Willow grinned conspiratorially, before they turned again to watch their families playing together in the snow. Daniel was chasing a shrieking Kathy around the guitarist snowman with an armful of snow, while Tara was waiting to ambush them both with an arsenal of fresh snowballs. Angel and Oz, on the other hand, were busy building rather elaborate opposing forts. By the time Xander and Connor arrived with their families as well to join the fun, which should have been any minute from then, the backyard would have already become an all-out war zone. Buffy shook her head in despair. "How is it that he's older than this country and yet can still be so astonishingly childish?" A poorly suppressed giggle betrayed how much she adored that particular quality, but Willow played along.

"It's the sad truth, isn't it?" she sighed, looking fondly at Oz. "Boys never do completely grow up."

"I guess the only thing to do is make sure they don't hurt themselves," said Buffy with a wicked grin. With that, the two of them double-checked that all of the presents were wrapped and their contents unidentifiable, donned their coats, gloves, boots, and hats, and rushed out to greet the laughter filling the frosty air.

* * *

So yeah, this would be when Buffy finds out she's pregnant with Liam (though she obviously doesn't know he's a he, let alone Liam, just yet). I thought the situation was suitably adorable for a good holiday fic. I had fun with Buffy and Willow wrapping presents in themed wrapping paper. Also, Angel and Oz playing with the kids in the snow...it really doesn't get cuter than that. I decided to end it with Buffy and Willow headed out to join the fun and before Xander and Connor got there with their families, even though the snowball war probably ended up being really awesome. I imagine it would have involved boys vs. girls at some point, and since the girls include two Slayers (for those of you unfamiliar with Renée from the comics, she's a Slayer, but since this is set after my "Season 8" fic rather than after the actual season eight comic, she is not dead), they would have won. And afterwards, there would have been lots of hot chocolate, with the kids falling asleep while the Scoobies watch stuff like _It's a Wonderful Life_ and one or both of the first two _Home Alone_ movies. Whatever you like. Anyway, merry Christmas!


	2. Chapter 2

"Mommy, Daddy, wake up! It's Christmas! Wake up, it's time for presents!"

Buffy and Angel stirred groggily. The latter mumbled something indistinctly, while the former attempted to snuggle closer to him. But that wasn't good enough for their entirely-too-energetic-for-this-hour-of-the-morning four-year-old, who clambered impatiently onto the bed and started jumping. Even better, she seemed to have brought Doyle, their rather taciturn gray tabby, and he was certainly not pleased.

"Okay, okay, Kathy, we're up," said Angel as he and Buffy sat up. Doyle seized the opportunity to dart away again. Off to bother their other cat, Cordelia, no doubt. It had been that habit of irritating each other that had earned them their names in the first place.

"Yay!" said Kathy delightedly, the jumping diminishing to an excited bounce. "Merry Christmas, Daddy!" She leapt into Angel's arms and hugged him, and he smiled and affectionately returned the hug in spite of his tiredness. Kathy then proceeded to do the same to Buffy. Her joy was proving incredibly infectious, though that was nothing unusual. Buffy looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table and rolled her eyes. Eight o'clock. Much better than last year, when she had woken them up at five. They were supposed to be up now anyway, since everyone was coming over to spend Christmas Day together in a little over an hour.

"Daniel, Tara, Jesse, and Steven will be here soon," Buffy told her daughter, whose grin promptly doubled in size. "So go get dressed, okay, sweetie?" Kathy nodded vigorously, before bouncing back off the bed and skipping out of the room. They could hear her singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" quite a few notes off key as she headed down the hall. Angel turned, still smiling, and wrapped his arms around Buffy, who thought about what lay waiting for him under the tree and tried not to let her own grin look too suspicious. It didn't work.

"And what's that about?" he asked in the deep rumbling tone that he knew perfectly well would turn her defenses to mush.

"You'll find out," she said evasively. Knowing what he was up to, she hastily prevented him from continuing the interrogation by reaching up to pull his head to hers for a rather mind-blowing morning kiss. The suspense of not telling him that she was pregnant with their second child was almost like torture, except that torture generally didn't make her as excited as the little girl who was now singing "Jingle Bells" in the room down the hall. It had about driven Buffy insane, but she had made it through the whole week without spoiling the surprise. Not that there hadn't been close calls. At one point, she had almost let it slip to Dawn. If she hadn't caught herself just in time to change direction mid-sentence, it would have ended right there. She strongly suspected that Willow had told Oz, but wasn't particularly concerned about that. If anyone could keep a secret, Oz could. And in just over an hour, she wouldn't have to worry about keeping it anymore.

The kiss had gone on, progressing rapidly from tender to passionate, and was about to become something else altogether, when Kathy burst back into the room without warning, forcing her parents to keep things PG, much to their displeasure. They hid it well, however, when they hastily broke apart at Kathy's loud, indignant "Ewww!" and looked towards the door. She was now out of her pajamas and into jeans, Christmas sweater, and matching socks, but her hair was still in desperate need of attention, for it had dried rather interestingly from last night's bath as she slept.

"Okay, come here, Bug, we've got work to do," said Buffy as she and Angel at last got out of bed. He moved to the dresser and pulled out boxers, black pants, and a dark red button up shirt, while she picked up Kathy and left the room, turning over various ideas for cute hairdos in her mind.

Somehow, they managed to be ready by nine, but it was a close thing. An incident involving Kathy's Cocoa Puffs and one of the cats lying in wait in the cupboard had required both Kathy and Buffy to change clothes, leaving Angel to clean up the mess in the kitchen for having dared to laugh at them. Then he had to keep holding onto Kathy so that she wouldn't sneak off to the tree and start opening presents without them.

Connor and Dawn were the first to arrive, crossing the threshold in a whirl of snowflakes, Dawn clutching a squirming Steven and Connor all but obscured from view behind the stack of presents he carried. Then came Xander and Renée with Jesse, who ran between the grownups' legs to find Kathy. A few minutes later, Willow and Oz came, and Daniel's and Tara's giggles were added to those of the other three children. Finally, drawing shrieks of delight from all five kids (and badly suppressed sniggers from most of the adults), Giles appeared, fully decked out in a Santa suit and carrying his guitar.

Buffy's excitement—and having to contain it—was almost more than she could stand. She tried to siphon some off into taking pictures of Kathy, who was happily hugging the large stuffed tiger she had just unwrapped as she sat in a sea of shredded wrapping paper. Willow kept shooting Buffy furtive glances throughout her own photography session with the twins, who were currently having more fun throwing wrapping paper at each other than unwrapping more presents. Renée was somewhat preoccupied trying to keep Jesse from shooting the traumatized cats with his new Nerf gun, and Dawn smiled as she watched Connor help Steven open presents wrapped a tad too stubbornly for a twenty-month-old.

Finally, after Angel had finished thanking Willow and Oz for the sketchbook and charcoals they had given him, Buffy decided it was time. She made her way carefully through the paper explosion to the tree and retrieved the small package, before going to sit beside her husband. He turned to smile at her, and she kissed him on the cheek.

"Merry Christmas, Angel," she said warmly, placing the package in his hands.

"Do I finally get to find out what you've been so jumpy about all week?" he asked with a sly grin. Buffy pouted.

"You are way too perceptive," she accused, whacking his arm playfully. "Open it."

Across the room, Willow looked up from Daniel, who was now strumming discordantly away on the toy guitar, just in time to see that Angel had started to open the present. Her hand shot out to seize Oz's forearm as she fought back her excitement. He wrapped an arm around her and smirked in comprehension as he followed her gaze. The others seemed to realize that something was going on too, for the room had grown quiet—except, of course, for the chatter and giggles of four older kids, who had noticed nothing—and all eyes were trained on Buffy and Angel.

The wrapping paper fell away, and Angel stared down at the pieces of paper and strip of plastic on his lap. It took a second or two for him to connect the dots, and his mouth fell open. He looked at Buffy, asking mutely for confirmation, because he had quite forgotten how to make his voice work. Eyes sparkling with emotion, she pulled one of his hands over to rest on her stomach. It took a few more seconds before the light bulb over Angel's head fully clicked on. His whole face lit up, splitting into the biggest, most beautiful smile Buffy had ever seen. His hand slid around from her stomach to her side and the present tumbled to the floor as he pulled her onto his lap and kissed her hard.

Dawn's and Renée's squeals of delight soon joined Willow's as they realized the significance of the contents of the package and Angel's reaction to them. Xander whistled, Giles smiled beneath the Santa beard, Connor grinned as he readjusted his now half-asleep son against his shoulder, and Oz nodded in satisfaction, but Buffy and Angel were oblivious to their audience.

Willow had been right. This _was_ the best Christmas-slash-Hanukkah ever, and there were still over twelve hours left of it.

* * *

Hope you liked it! Merry (late now) Christmas! And now that I have a stable internet connection and a few minutes, I'll comment on some stuff from this chapter. The Doyle and Cordelia cats. Hee. I was glad for a chance to introduce them and have them wreak minor havoc. Since we didn't actually see the Cordy-cat in this, I'll describe her for you here. She's long-haired, and her coat is sleek and dark chocolaty brown with white splashes on her chest and paws, and her eyes are golden brown. We did cat genetics in class last semester, which was what originally inspired the cat thing. Angel being annoyingly perceptive was fun, as was Buffy's method of distracting him from asking her questions. And I love writing Kathy. Finally, Xander, Renée, Connor, and Dawn are actually in the picture instead of referenced, along with their kids. And then Angel's reaction. Happy sigh. I was grinning like a fool when I wrote that. Oh, and Santa Giles! Hehehe! All dignity is forgotten when it comes to entertaining the kids. And he totally would act like that, too. Gah. So much cute.


End file.
